‘The Studio’ Episode 5: profits not passions, please!
We're half-way through now and tensions are high
This post contains spoilers for Episode 5 of The Studio on Apple TV. Watch it then come back!
I’m starting to get attached to ‘The Studio’ Wednesdays, and I’m hoping you are too.
It’s not Seth Rogen’s style to let us get comfortable for too long though, because today’s Episode 5 (titled The War) breaks away from studio head Matt Remick for a change and instead, focuses on Sal and Quinn; two creative executives battling it out in yet another intense thirty-minute episode.
Laden with tongue-in-cheek jokes about HR violations, generation gaps, the profitless pursuit of arthouse cinema and the compulsory sell-out of working for a studio, we’re forced to confront the deceit of the industry we love once again. It’s hard being a cinephile!
Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders steal the show as Sal and Quinn, and with those long takes, you just know they pulled out the ad-lib card a couple of times. It’s refreshing to see creators like Rogen feel comfortable taking the audience down little subplot rabbit holes with an ensemble cast. Thankfully, the satirical nature of The Studio gives it a sitcom-esque freedom: we can dip in and out of our character’s stories and have as little loyalty to them as they do to each other.
If anything, this episode captures the pervasive fast-paced individualism that Hollywood incessantly promotes. Sure, it’s inherently capitalist and very Western at heart to be all “each man for himself” when you’re at work, but it’s equally depressing to realise that sometimes our favourite movies are made in boardrooms where discordant relationships and deceitful executives thrive. Nevertheless, Rogen’s determined not to let us have sympathy for these executives, no matter the age, with Quinn and Sal just as bad as each other.
From changing meetings, to stealing parking spaces, from sabotaging brainstorming sessions, to exploiting Remick’s ignorance to it all, making movies feels like a sick game when you watch this episode back. The movie that gets made is the one championed by the sneakiest colleague, the one is the studio head’s ear, the pushy advisor. Barinholtz plays this role so well you find yourself tutting and rolling your eyes at him, but that’s not to say Quinn gets any sympathy: although a little more loveable, her tunnel vision is just as bad as Sal’s.
There’s always a deeper meaning in these episodes if you take the time to pick it out, and this time around, I felt Sal and Quinn’s little debacle was very telling about the struggles of getting indie cinema greenlit in modern Hollywood. Cannes is referred to with some distaste, A24 is disregarded and not seen as a big buck studio and yet cinephiles around the world bow down to both. If that’s not a poetic ode to the filmmaker, I don’t know what is. At its core, The War may be about the fight between the visions of young execs versus the traditionalism of their older counterparts, but it’s also about watching the painful game of tug-of-war play out between those campaigning for profits and those on the side of passion.
If anything, Rogen’s success with The Studio thus far—as we’ve reached the halfway point of the series—is testament to this battle, and how it’s only really won when someone’s willing to take that risk. I’ve mentioned before in these episode reviews how Apple TV really stands out as a premium streamer in terms of its output, but definitely not on the balance sheet. It doesn’t seem to mind, and neither do I. Let’s hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon.
I’m in love with this show for the near future and I’ll be posting full reviews of each weekly release, just like this one. I’ll also be doing short video reviews on my Instagram and TikTok if you’d like to keep up to date there.
As always, I’d love to hear what you thought of the fifth episode - let me know in the comments.